Gambling News

"3 States May Legalize Online Gambling"

North Dakota, Illinois, and Georgia leading efforts to allow Internet gambling in their respective states.

The State Representative of North Dakota, Jim Kasper, has proposed legislation, which has already passed the house, to permit online Poker sites to operate legally within the state. Kasper’s argument was that legalizing Internet Poker would eliminate the state’s need for tax increases, as online gambling is already a proven money spinner.

Now political office holders from North Dakota, Illinois, and Georgia are spearheading efforts to allow at least some form of Internet gambling in their respective states. These three states are not alone in their attempts to make online gambling more accessible to American citizens.

The states of Georgia and Illinois have also proposed bills that would make it legal to sell online lottery tickets to residents over the age of 18. Senator John Cullerton of Illinois and Representative Terry Barnard of Georgia have both pointed out that the sale of lottery tickets could generate millions in revenues for their states.

Britain too is jumping on the wagon and is about to allow 137 of its land-based casinos to begin taking overseas online bets from Americans.

Of course, all of this means that the Federal Wire Act of 1961, which prohibited the use of phone lines for placing wagers, will have to be bypassed. According to legal experts, however, this shouldn’t be impossible since the law is hard to enforce and difficult to apply when it comes to Internet technology. As it came into force before the advent of the Internet there are doubts about its effectiveness.

In response to the limitations of the Act, U.S. lawmakers have been trying for years to get the law updated, hoping that, by doing so, they could put the brakes on the phenomenal growth of the online gambling industry. But this could be a hard battle, as the U.S. is now appealing the WTO’s ruling which states that the U.S. is in violation of international trade rules because U.S. citizens are allowed to make wagers at domestic casinos using credit cards, but are prohibited from doing so when it comes to online casinos.

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